Binder clip



20, 1932 L. EBALTZLEY 1,891,494

BINDER CLIP Filed June 8, 1931 INVENTOR 1054135 Bahzle'z Patented Dec. 20, 1932 UNITED STATES LOUIS E. BAL'IZLEY, OF GLEN RIDGE, NEW JERSEY BINDER CLIP Application filed June 8, 1931.

This invention relates to clips, particularly for binding together a number of sheets of paper, and its principal object resldes n the provision of a novel construction which is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, and superior to those heretofore in use.

In a general way, it may be said that this invention is concerned with a binder which includes gripper jaws and meansnormally urging them toward each other, but permltting their separation for insertion of papers and so forth between them; and it resides n the provision of novel constructions OfthlS character, whereby certain objects and advantages are achieved, as will be in part pointed out hereinafter and in part apparent.

For a concise description of a preferred embodiment of my invention, reference will now be had to the accompanying drawing, wherein: Fig. 1 is an end elevation of my novel clip, Fig. 2 is an end elevation similar to Fig. 1 but showing the clip members in open position; Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the construction shown in Fig. 1, partly broken away; Fig. 4 is a plan view partly broken away looking from above in Fig. 3; Fig. 5 1s a detail view of the hinge construction when the parts are in the position shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 6 is a detail View of the hinge construction when the parts are in the position shown in- Fig. 2; Fig. 7 is a View similar to Figs. 1 and 2, but showing the side members in intermediate position, gripping a bundle of papers illustrated in dotted lines.

The device illustrated in the drawing consists of three pieces. two being the opposed side members 7 including hinge portions 9 and gripper jaws adapted to open and shut when the members swing with respect to each other, and the third, spring means 14 engaging said members normally to urge the jaws toward each other, but capable. when the angle between portions 9 is 180 or more, of 45 maintaining the members with their jaws in open position. In other words the members may be snapped open and will remain so until force is applied to close them. Accordingly, the device may well be described as including 50 a spring toggle in combination with certain member. These offset portions not only serve Serial No. 542,711.

other features of construction, which will now be more particularly described.

The two side members 7 may best be formed of rigid material, such assteel or brass, and are preferably duplicates so that when they are opposed in the assembled construction they will cooperate as shown. These members 7 consist of portions 9 which are termed hinge portions, for reasons-hereinafter indicated, gripper portions orjaws 8, and handle portions 10. The gripper portions 8 are formed at an angle to the hinge portions 9 and may have their ends bent as at 11. The angle between the portions 8 and 9 need not be of any particular size but will be such that when the parts are in the position shown in Fig.1, with the jaws in closed position, there willbe no strain on thehinge. The handles 10, for opening the jaws by swinging the members 7 about the hinge, are 7 preferably formed as extensions of the gripper portions 8, or at an angle 'to the hinge portions 9. These handles act as manually operable levers for opening the jaws against the spring action. Each of these side members may conveniently be formed with two end sections constituting the hinge portions, and an intermediate section constituting the'handle portion. However, this arrangement may be varied at will. Each of said members is provided along the free edge of the hinge portion 9 with at least one ofiset portion 12, preferably at least one such portion at each end, for engaging an edge on the opposite as abutments for the opposite edges, to form hinges, but act as stops against the hinge portions 9, as in Fig. 2 to prevent the spring from opening the jaws too wide. This action is shown particularly in Fig. 6. Theedges Q 13 which are adapted to cooperate with the oifset portions 12 are preferably formed as knife edges, to permit easy operation of the clip. The offset portions 12, as shown in Fi s. 1 and 3, are actually in the form of lugs angled 'rearwardly or to the outside of the binder and projecting beyond the meeting edges of the hinge portions and are'shown in Fig. 4 as disposed in alternating order.

with the lug on one of the members between two of the corresponding lugs on the other member, the latter arrangement preventing relative longitudinal shifting of the edge-toedge engaged members.

The spring member 14 is preferably formed in C shape, or semi-circular with inturned edges or flanges forming lugs 15 for engaging lugs or flanges 16 formed on the members and shown in Fig. 4 in the form of lugs struck out of the hinge portions 9 at opposite sides of the hinging axis and projecting to the rear or to the outside of the binder, Fig. 1, so

as to be readily engaged by the inturned edges of the spring. This spring is best formed as a single piece of sheet metal, but it will be apparent that the spring may be modified without departing-from the scope of the invention. This spring 14 exerts a compressive action tending to maintain the hinge members in hinged engagement at all times. It is so constructed that it is capable of spreading from the position shown in Fig. 1 to the position shown in Fig. 2 when the members are moved to open the jaws for the insertion of papers therebetween. Of course, the position of the spring and lugs may be changed as convenient. For instance, the spring might be on the inside of or between the members. In some cases, other types of springs may be used.

I prefer to make the angle between the hinge portions 9 and the gripper portions 8 greater than aright angle, as shown particularly in Fig. 7. When this angle is an obtuse angle and the gripper portionsS are substantially parallel or perhaps slightly converging in the positions adapted to cooperate with a maximum thickness of material to be bound by the clip, the angle 5 between the hinge members will be sufficiently large to permit the spring 14 to exert a moment of suflicient magnitude to cause the gripper jaws effectively to grip the material. In other words, the force of the spring will be applied at points. considerably in advance of the toggle oint, or so that the moment will be equivalent to the force of the spring multiplied by the lever arm, equivalent to the distance indicated at c. If the angle a were a right angle, it will be seen that the capacity of the clip would be reduced because when the sides 8 are parallel there will be no appreciable angle b; that is, under these conditions the hinge portions 9 would lie in a straight line and there would be no moment.

In manufacturing the device, it will be understood that the side members are readly stamped from sheet material, as integral, relatively rigid elements. An entire member may be formed in a single operation in this fashion. In assembling the parts, it is simply necessary to oppose the two side members with the offset portions 12 cooperating with the edges of the hinge members as shown in Fig. 4, and then press an end of the spring 14 against the outer sides of portions 9 to spread the spring, and then slide it along so that its feet 15 engage the lugs 16. The clip may then be opened by simply urging the handles 10 toward each other until the portions 9, or toggle arms are substantially in line, whereupon the members are snapped to. their open position. lVhile the portions 9 are shown in Fig. 2 as approximately aligned, the same effect may be accomplished where they form, when open, an angle opposite to that shown in Fig. 1.

While I have described the preferred embodiment of the invention in considerable detail, I do not want to limit the scope of the invention to these details, save as required by the appended claims, in the light of the prior art. Ordinarily there is suiiicient friction between the spring and the spring anchorage lugs 16 to prevent shifting or detachment'of the spring but if desired, a positive interlock may be provided, for instance, by notching one or both of the inturned edges of the spring as indicated at 17 in Fig. 4, so that,'

as the spring is pushed endwise over the lugs and reaches its final position, this notched portion or portions will snap inward over the edges of the lug or lugs. By reference to Figs. 1 and 7 it will be noted, n the fully closed or more nearly closed positions, that the compression or jaw closing force of the spring is less but the leverage with which the spring operates is greater than when the leverage reduces and conversely the leverage increasing as the spring closing force reduces. power is advantageous for most. purposes but may be varied, for example, to increase the force as the jaws open up, by. widening the angles a between the jaw portions and hinge portions 9 to increase the applied leverage;

exerted by the spring.

What is claimed is: I 1. A binder of the character disclosed, comprising cooperat ng members having aw portions and connected hinge portions, saidhinge portions meeting in edge to edge relation and having lugs extending beyond such edges and inclined angularly to the outside or the binder, said angularly extended lugs of the two h nge portions being arranged in alternating order to hingedly retain the hinge portions in the edge to edge relation, said hinge portions of the members having spring anchorage lugs extending therefrom at opposite sides of the hinging axis, a comforce This general uniformity of holding pression spring of bowed cross section having inturned flanges at the edges of the same and engaged over said spring anchorage lugs, and the hinge lugs being angled to the rear of the binder sufliciently to permit'hinging movement of the hinge portions past the dead center ,in the jaw opening operation and thereby enabling the compression spr'ng to hold the binder in the open relation as well as in the closed relation.

2. A binder of the character disclosed, comprising cooperating members having jaw portions and connected hinge portions, said hinge portions meeting in edge to edge relation and having lugs extending beyond such edges and inclined angularly to the outside of the binder, said angularly extended lugs of the two hinge portions being arranged in alternating order to hingedly retain the hin 'e portions in the edge to edge relation, said hinge portions of the members having spring anchorage lugs extending therefrom at opposite sides of the hinging axis, a compression spring of bowed cross section having inturned flanges at the edges of the same and engaged over said spring anchorage lugs, and the hinge lugs being angled to the rear of the binder sufficiently to permit hinging movement of the hinge portions past the dead center in the jaw opening operation, thereby enabling the compression spring to hold the binder in the open relation as well as in the closed relation and jaw opening lever handles connected with and extending rearwardly from the hinge portions and having sutlicient movement to carry the hinge portions past the dead center to cause the compression spring to hold the binder in the open position. A

3. A binder of the character disclosed, comprising companion members having jaw portions and connected hinge portions, said hinge portions meeting in edge to edge relation and provided at such meeting edge portions each with a single projecting lug near one end and with a pair of spaced projecting lugs near the opposite end, said members being arranged in relatively reversed relation with the single lug of one member entered between the pair of lugs of the other member, and a compression spring connected with the hinge portions of said members and holding the lugs engaged in the relation described.

4. A binder of the character disclosed, comprising companion members having jaw portions and connected hinge portions, said hinge portions meeting in edge to edge relation and having at their meeting edges cooperating lugs retaining the members in hinged engagement, anchor lugs on the back members and a compression spring having inturned flanges engaged over said anchor lugs and one of said flanges having a notch therein interlocking with one of the anchor lugs to hinged relation, "said edge to edge engaged hold said spring against longitudinal discooperating members having jaw portions and connected hinge portions, said hinge portions meeting in edge to edge engagement and having projecting lugs at the meeting edges of the same for retaining the hinge portions in hinged edge to edge-engagement, rearwardly projecting anchor lugs on the hinge portions a-t-opposite sides of the hinging axis,'a compression spring having inturned edges engaged with said anchor lugs to hold the hinge portions hingedly engaged and said projecting lugs for retaining the hinge portions in hinged'enga'gement being positioned to permit the hinge portions to move far enough to carry the spring anchorage lugs from one side'of the hinge axis to the opposite side of said hinge axis in the jaw opening movement whereby said hinge portions have a jaw opening movement past the dead center of the hinge to enable the spring to hold the hinge portions with the connected jaw portions standing in the jaw open relation, means for effecting the jaw opening relative movement of the cooperating members. A clip of the character described, comprising a pair ofopposed members each having a gripper portion and a hinge portionat an angle thereto, said hinge portions of the opposed members being engaged in edge to edge relation and eachhaving offset extensions hingedly engaging the edge of the opposed hinge portion, lugs on the members, a generally'semi-circular spring engaged with said lugs to maintain the members in such hinged portions and the offset extensions of the same being constructed and arranged to travel past the dead center position of the hinge with the hinge portions substantially in alignment, whereby the spring may hold the members with the jaw portions fully open and extensions on the members'for manually moving them to said open aw position.

7. A binder of the character disclosed comprising cooperating members having jaw portions and connected hinge portions, said hinge portions meeting in edge to edge relation and having cooperating parts of a separable hinge joint at such meeting edges, a compression spring of generally C-shaped cross section engaged with the hinge portions at opposite sides of the hinge axis, said hinge portions and spring having cooperatively engaging lugs and flange elements whereby the spring is caught to the hinge portions and said separable hinge portions are held associated in the hinged relation, the cooperating parts of the separable hinge joint being positioned to permit a movement of the hinge portions suflicient to carry the cooperatively engaged lug and flange elements from a position at one side of the hinge axis to aposition at the opposite side of the hinge axis in the jaw opening movement whereby the hinge portions have a jaw opening movement past the dead center of the hinge connection and whereby the spring is enabled to hold the cooperating members in the jaw open condition and a handle connected with and projecting from at least one of the members for relatively hinging the members past the dead center into position where the same will be held by the spring in the jaw open relation.

8. A binder of the character disclosed, comprising companion members having jaw portions and connected hinge portions, said hinge portions meeting in edge-to-edge relation and having sharpened edges and retaining lugs projecting beyond said sharpened edges, said members being assembled with the sharpened edges of one member in hinging engagement with retaining lugs on the other member, a compression spring engaged with the hinge portions of the members to hold the sharpened edge portions of the same hingedly engaged with the retaining lugs, said retaining lugs being positioned to enable the hinge portions to swing past a dead center position in the jaw opening movement and the spring being connected with the hinge portions at points to exert a pressure in such jaw open relation to retain the members with the jaw portions in the open position.

9. A binder of the character disclosed, comprising companion members having jaw portions and hinge portions connected to said jaw portions at obtuse angles, said hinge portionsmeeting in edge-to-edge relation and having at such meeting edges cooperating elements of a hinge, a compression spring connected with the members at opposite sides of the edge-to-edge meeting portions of the members in position to exert a substantially constant gripping-force throughout the gripping range of the binder, and in position such that the applied leverage of the spring is reduced as the spring tension is increased and is increased as the spring tension is reduced and said cooperating elements of the hinge being positioned to enable the points of connection of the spring with the members to travel from a position at one side of the hinging, axis to a position at the opposite side of the hinging axis in the jaw opening movement of the members whereby said members have a jaw opening movement sufficient for the applied force of the spring to hold them in such jaw open position.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

LOUIS E. BALTZLEY. 

